Following the holiday season and as cold, wintry weather settles in, many Arkansans find themselves facing tough financial situations. Entergy Arkansas, Inc. is offering help to customers whose income may be stretched.

Approximately 20 to 25 percent of Entergy’s 2.7 million customers need government assistance to survive. The latest poverty report released by the U. S. Census showed that the number of Americans living in poverty was the highest since 1997. The four states that Entergy serves were in the top nine with the highest statewide poverty rates. Arkansas ranked fifth.

Arkadelphia, Ark. –

Though all of Arkadelphia’s city directors support the purchase of the Royal Theatre, two directors oppose how the administration is proposing the city pay for it.

A crowd of about 30 people, most of them Southern Bancorp employees, attended a special meeting Thursday morning in the Town Hall Boardroom, where a full quorum of board directors gave their input on a bond issuance.

In its last regular meeting, the board passed an “intent resolution,” 4-1, for the intent of issuing $2.6 million in new bonds for construction and refinancing the city’s 2003 bond.

Arkadelphia, Ark. –

U.S. Congressman Mike Ross, center, cuts a ribbon to recognize the re-paving of Skyline Drive. Ross was accompanied by U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officials; County Judge Ron Daniell; Arkadelphia Mayor Chuck Hollingshead, left; Caddo Valley Mayor Alan Dillavou, right; Bill Wright, president of Southern Bancorp…

Arkadelphia, Ark. –

2000

Arkadelphia city officials and Water Utilities employees moved into the newly constructed Town Hall in November, despite a “few things” that had yet to be finished. The old city hall, adjacent to where Fire Department Station 1 is now, was later torn down.

The veteran memorial was placed on the north lawn of the Clark County Courthouse.

The City of Amity constructed a new City Hall.

2009 – the year in review

Local manufacturing plant Delta Wire announced on Aug. 6 that it would be shutting down operations effective immediately. Clarksdale Plant Manager Gary Downey attributed the plant’s closing to the general nationwide economic downturn and a drop in tire sales. 76 employees lost their jobs as a result of the plant closing.

A week later, in response to the Delta Wire closing, District 26 Rep. Chuck Espy called a meeting with local politicians and businessmen to discuss the future of Clarksdale without Delta Wire.

Shawnie Carrier, executive director of the Arkadelphia Regional Economic Development Alliance, left and Connie Nelson, executive director of the Arkadelphia Area Chamber of Commerce, chat with Southern Bancorp employees Carrie Price, third from left, and Carrie Roberson, far right, during an Open House Thursday.

Bob Moore, publisher of Carroll County News and the Lovely County Citizen is among three nominees in the county for 2010 Henry Awards, presented annually by the Arkansas Department of Parks and Tourism. Opera in the Ozarks and the Eureka Springs Parks and Recreation Commission are the county’s other nominees.

The Southern Good Faith Fund issued a call Monday for the state to find more money to help match low-income Arkansans’ college savings.

Mike Leach, the fund’s public policy director, said the “Aspiring Scholars” program is growing and the current state funds aren’t enough to sustain the matches.

The Aspiring Scholars Matching Grant Program showed a successful first year helping Arkansans save for college, according to a report released today by Southern Good Faith Funds Public Policy program.

Aspiring Scholars was authorized by the Arkansas Legislature under Act 597 of 2007. The program offers an incentive, in the form of a savings match, for low- and moderate-income Arkansas families to save for their childrens’ college education using the GIFT College Investment Plan. The GIFT Plan is Arkansas 529 college savings plan.

Arkadelphia, Ark. –

The Arkadelphia City Board of Directors met with a bare quorum Thursday in Town Hall to discuss “findings” from a recently performed 2007 audit; to consider a resolution for the 2010 budget; and to consider annexing a parcel of land to the city limits.

Directors Don Hager, DeDe Baldwin and Anthony Owen were absent.

Auditors found “compliance issues” with how city officials used accounting practices as spelled out by U.S. Government Auditing Standards, though the city did conform to the Arkansas Code.

City Manager Jimmy Bolt told directors that the city “overall performed very well” with its principles.
The first finding was the “segregation of duties” among city administrators in accounting. Bolt said the city is not able to hire enough employees for certified standards, but responded in a memo to auditors that “offices will segregate the duties … to the extent possible with the current staffing levels.”